Comedian-actor Chris Rock has finally spoken out about Will Smith slapping him on Oscars 2022 night, a year after the incident took place. In a stand-up special at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre on Saturday, Rock got candid about the incident.
During the event, which took place a year ago, Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. In particular, he cracked a joke about her hair; Jada suffers from a hair loss condition called Alopecia.
In response to the comment, Smith slapped him onstage and on live television. The comedian has now opened up about the incident -when people asked him about the slap and why he didn’t do anything about it, he said: “Why didn’t you do anything back?’ Cause I got parents. Cause I was raised. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
“Will Smith practices selective outrage. Outrage because everybody knows what the f**k happened. Everybody that really knows, knows that I have nothing to do with that s**t. I didn’t have any entanglements,” Rock was referencing to Jada’s affair with singer August Alsina. He also said that he had reached out to Smith when after he heard about the affair but never heard back from him.
Rock also added, “You know what people say, they say, ‘words hurt.’ Anybody that say words hurt has never been punched in the face. But I’m not a victim, baby. You’ll never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying."
Will Smith was banned from the Oscars for a decade following the incident.
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